Tagged: Silk Spectre

Power STILL hasn’t been restored in my cave deep in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, but this is probably due to the fact that it never had any. I knew this was going to be a bad storm when the Jersey Devil showed up at my cave and asked if he could plug his phone into my charger.

I never knew the Jersey Devil was into comics. He had dropped by my cave a few times in the past to borrow sugar, and one time because his friends had baked him some brownies and couldn’t eat them all. When he saw Before Watchmen Silk Spectre on my coffee table, he freaked out.

“YEAH!” he hooted. “I had heard about these! Are they any good? Is there, like, an overall plot?”

Some are great, I said, some aren’t. NO, I said, they follow their own narratives. I told him I was getting pretty excited about Before Watchmen Moloch #1 coming out this week because it was drawn by Eduardo “100 Bullets” Risso.

“I liked that Spaceman book he just did. I used to love seeing his stuff in Heavy Metal,” said the Devil.

“That’s getting a deluxe hardcover edition this week from Vertigo,” I mentioned. “Wow! I didn’t know you liked comic books, The New Jersey Devil,” I said. He likes being called by his full name…he’s oddly formal like that.

“Bigfoot is really into them and he lent me some stuff,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to Avenging Spider-Man #14 this week. Spidey’s going to team up with Moon Boy and Devil Dinosaur!”

The New Jersey Devil has a pretty good point. Devil Dinosaur is awesome.

QUICK PICKS

Marvel is launching a new Iron Man title with a new #1 this week. Tony seems to be sporting his new Black and Gold armor he’ll be wearing in the most of the Marvel Now titles. I’m on board.

Few talk about Vertigo these days, but this week Vertigo is bringing a top tier table of titles. The first of their authorized Stieg Larsson graphic novel adaptations hits the shelves with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo TP, as well as the sequel to the comic which inspired the film Road to Perdition, the aptly named Return to Perdition.

The debut graphic novel Black Lung from Chris Wright and Fantagraphics books also looks intriguing. Black Lung is already garnering critical praise and getting some great press. ‘Tis a story of love and loss, and one man’s quest to commit as much unspeakable sin as he can in order to be reunited with his dead wife in Hell.

BOOKS WORTH A LOOK

There are also a couple of sweet art books hitting the shelves this week. Famed fantasy artist Brom has an original art novel called Krampus: The Yule Lord featuring everybody’s favorite Christmastime crazy, the Krampus! PLUS, a brand new book from Scott C. in the form of Great Showdowns.

Scott C. is a wonder! If you haven’t picked up Amazing Everything, Scott C.’s first book of fantastic illustrations, NOW would be a great time! The holidays are fast approaching, and there ain’t nobody that you know who wouldn’t want this book for their very own!

NEXT WEEK: The Disney/Lucas merger and what it means for us all. Till then, stay dry!

Statistics is fun, let’s try some. 100% of you are reading this sentence….see how that works? 75% of those reading this sentence comprise 3/4ths of my readership. 12% are dying for a drop of 100 proof, which is to say 50% alcohol by volume, meaning that 12% want 50% percent while 88% could care two cents about the whole dang thing.

Now unless you’ve been living in the French Legionnaires for the past week you are aware via the internet (a series of tubes) that theWatchmen Prequel comic books have been green lit. We’ll soon have the adventures of Baby Rorschach, Nite Owl, and Silk Spectre from a variety of creators, none of whom areDave Gibsons or Alan Moore.

There are only three aspects I want to focus on:

1) THE NUMBERS

This purely financial maneuver by DC, the comics company with the new, boring logo, may lead to some good books. With eight new titles, statistics make it hard for them all to be crap.

I’m very surprised that they had the wherewithal to re-team Brian Azzarello with Lee Bermejo from their fun graphic novel Joker onto a Rorschach book. Azzarello writes engaging crime comics full of losers, tough guys, and snappy banter…and he is the ONLY writer capable of making Rorschach, or his other title The Comedian, worth reading.

I’m THRILLED Adam Hughes will return to sequential art in Dr. Manhattan. I’m less than thrilled that J. M. Straczynski will be penning many of these new titles. Darwyn Cooke was the right guy for a Minutemen book…but let’s look at what they’ve done.

Get the team behind the grittiest crime comics to work on your gritty crime comic. Get the best post-modern, yet nostalgic, team book writer to write your nostalgic post-modern team book. Hire a big name to handle the rest and dole out art to whomever you can. I’m not saying go outside of your comfort zone, DC, I’m just asking you to show your cards a little less.

This is “Moneyball” for comics, a game DC has been playing for some time. They’ll have some hits, they’ll have some creative misses. They’ll make money…but will they burn bridges? Continue reading →